House Calls Are Popular Again

NYT: A relic from the medical past — the house call — is returning to favor as part of some hospitals’ palliative care programs, which are sending teams of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other workers to patients’ homes after they are discharged. The goal is twofold: to provide better treatment and to cut costs.

Confusion continues to exist over what palliative care is and whom it is for. Broadly, it is meant to ease symptoms and pain, and focus on quality of life for severely ill patients, who can choose between continuing or halting traditional medical treatment.

Palliative care also occurs in hospitals, but an added emphasis on home care has been a selling point. A vast majority of patients would rather be at home than in a hospital anyway, said Dr. R. Sean Morrison, co-director of the new Patty and Jay Baker National Palliative Care Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and director of the National Palliative Care Research Center.

Personally I'd rather be in a hospital. Closer to needed resources and surrounded by excellent medical minds. I also just find hospitals totally fascinating. Until they drain me of my money. But that's another story.

Personally I'd rather be in a hospital. Closer to needed resources and surrounded by excellent medical minds. I also just find hospitals totally fascinating. Until they drain me of my money. But that's another story.

Did you read the article? If yes, do you understand what palliative care is? If you ever become a palliative care patient (and I hope you don't), then you'd want to be at home instead of a hospital.